Leonia, the Bavarian situation is known to me, as I was living there for many years (cute Bavarian boy was to "blame", for it was me who had to move from Northern Germany to Rosenheim...)But in the gastronomy you'd find typical mushroom dishes like Schwammerlsuppn as ever before, not to forget the yearly Schwammerl-Wochen(m. weeks - more offers than usual). Unless we don't eat those dishes too often, it's ok!?

I found some mention of plant materials on Pharaoh Tut-ankh-Amon's coffin but not Bittersweet Nightshade.

This evening I discovered why I had always thought this plant was Deadly Nightshade. Where my dad grew up Bittersweet or American Bittersweet, a vine toxic to humans but great for birds was native, and was something people might plant to encourage birds, so of course the invasive weed had a different name ;-). Sometimes Latin names really do help.

I found some mention of plant materials on Pharaoh Tut-ankh-Amon's coffin but not Bittersweet Nightshade. ----------

All kinds of errors possible, from wrong id to careless naming. At least bittersweet does grow in northern Africa. But archaeological plant material is not easy to identify even these days, certainly not earlier. And plant knowledge is not exactly in the mainstream of archeological education, except pollens

The knotweeds were a very unexpected hurdle. Seems to be no agreement on which species "common" knotweed is. Might be different distribution pattern in different countries?Wild roses - a thorny matter indeed; any common English name for Rosa sub-canina (Estonian kutsikaroos = "whelp rose" )? What is the best English word for "wild rose" - corresponding to "nyponros" in Swedish, "kibuvits" in Estonian?Hawthorns - what is a species and what is a variety ...

Academic hair-splitting? Well, a lady ordered wild roses "R. vosagiaca", for her wildlife garden especially from Germany since they were not to be had in Sweden. Only synonym name R. dumalis, "glaucos dog rose" reveals that it is one of the most common wild Swedish "nyponrosor".

Here in France Liis,well in Alsace anyway,people make jam with wild rose hips. Its very popular but one has to go the countryside to pick them. I wonder how many have survived the land developemant going on everywhere Jam is called Confiture d'Eglantine. ( bush or tree,Eglantier)From the Wild rose,or Dog RoseIts delicious.!

, Macdoum!There is a Swedish saying, "Fräsch som en nyponros" - considered "Fresh as a dog rose" but, well ... - Dictionary says translation should be "Fresh as a daisy".

The rose hips: Not come across the marmalade. But to get the seeds out of all those rose hips ...One dish everybody in Sweden (used to) know is nyponsoppa: rose hip puree or sauce or soup. Eaten as dessert with whipped cream and almond bisquits.You can buy it dehydrated, or "fresh" in the cold counter together with the youghurts, juices and what-nots. Acceptable, but one year we decided to make our own, and it was really delicious, worth the seed-prying and the itchy seed (achene ) hairs.On the west coast tangles of rugosa roses grow almost in the seawater, with mini-tomato-size hips: pure pleasure to pick, and much easier to clean. Only taste isn't nearly as good. So, no easy shortcuts, "by the sweat of your brow" ... or itch of your back At least once a year.

Rose hips - As children we picked and ate rose hips mainly for the Vitamin C content. I think it was common to do that during and some years after World War II but I don't suppose anyone does it now. Food comes from supermarkets, doesn't it?

Rose hips - As children we picked and ate rose hips mainly for the Vitamin C content. I think it was common to do that during and some years after World War II but I don't suppose anyone does it now. Food comes from supermarkets, doesn't it?

The rose hip picking was even a government campaign, wasn't it?

Supermarkets: but the trendiest thing coming is said to be foraging in nature. Has been brewing for a while; all foodies know the Noma restaurant in Denmark.This week Sweden's answer to Noma, Oaxens skärgårdskrog, closed with big farewell dinner, i a featuring dish containing lichen off sloeberry bush branches.

------------------------In addition to following your link I finally looked up Sloe Berries apparently they are related to plums and almonds. "Distinguishing Feature : The scratches on hands and arms inflicted whilst trying to pick them."

Plums, definitely; people used to (try to) graft frost-sensitive plum varieties on sloe roots. Almonds more distantly I think.Went past a sloe thicket the other day, berries still all there; earlier people nearly fought about good sloe spots and paths were trodden like ditches all around them trying to get at the berries. Times are changing ...

More berries: anyone who has tried guelder rose (Viburnum opulus) berry tea? http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/11400. Maybe Estonian bushes are different. In Sweden the berries are 1) thought not good for you 2) tasted nothing at all as tea (properly frost-bitten and all). Did I use too few - about half as much as water?

Sad sight: excavations and blastings go on for new major thoroughfare. Sand and beautifully rounded gravel and stones were heaped in a mound, size of mini-pyramid: they have probably not seen the light of day since a retreating Ice Age glacier dropped them there, X thousand years ago. As a matter of fact, it is probably part of the base of a once mighty ridge of glacial material that went straight across Stockholm; battles have been fought on top of it and any number of windmills used the wind. It just doesn't seem right that all will only be carted away and replaced by fill-in rubble, sanitary pipes, Internet cables, underground garages.

The last day I was out planting daffodils before I came down with this nasty cold I saw a foreign cat slinking by, a small kitten really, with a cedar waxwing in its mouth. I don't know how the cat got it, those birds seem to hang out pretty high in the trees.

The last day I was out planting daffodils before I came down with this nasty cold I saw a foreign cat slinking by, a small kitten really, with a cedar waxwing in its mouth. I don't know how the cat got it, those birds seem to hang out pretty high in the trees.

Maybe a sick bird?Waxwings: they - and other birds too, probably - can get a bit drunk on fermented berries in late autumn, particularly rowanberries. Once a poor lecturer telling this was almost driven out from the auditorium. A listener got so angry with his nasty slanderous accusations against the sweet innocent birds ... (true story, I was there; but it was long ago).

The last day I was out planting daffodils before I came down with this nasty cold I saw a foreign cat slinking by, a small kitten really, with a cedar waxwing in its mouth. I don't know how the cat got it, those birds seem to hang out pretty high in the trees.

Maybe a sick bird?Waxwings: they - and other birds too, probably - can get a bit drunk on fermented berries in late autumn, particularly rowanberries. Once a poor lecturer telling this was almost driven out from the auditorium. A listener got so angry with his nasty slanderous accusations against the sweet innocent birds ... (true story, I was there; but it was long ago).

Pretty much the only berries in my yard are some that the birds (mostly our Robin/Thrush birds) do not touch until January. For a long time I thought the birds only ate them when they were desperate, but some posts here have made me rethink that. I think the berries do not become edible until after a nice frost or a bit of snow softens them up -- then the birds seem to enjoy them enormously.

Your question made me think -- maybe the bird flew from one of my Bronze Birch Beetle infested birch trees into my neighbour's house -- my trees are quite close to his second story. A bird with nasty knock on the head would have been easy prey for the cat. -- I do hate that a cat and a foreign cat that I had never even seen before, got one of my favourite birds.

Furcellaria or black carrageen or ...?The alga is obviously different from the "real" carrageen or Irish moss.The loose or drifting form may, or may not, it seems, be a different form from the attached one.And the furcellaran extracted from the alga might - or might not - be different from carrageenan, which in turn might or might not be agar-agar. The setting agent E406 in foods is probably all of those, and some more. (a look at carrageenans in Wikipedia is nice proof that "natural substances from nature" are chemical compounds too )

Sefir seems to be an Eastern European or even Baltic speciality: bascially Italian meringue with fruit paste added and set with a gelling substance like agar. Any English or even French name for it?

(A nice short little article. Just a few little things that possibly needed checking ... )

Furcellaria or black carrageen or ...?The alga is obviously different from the "real" carrageen or Irish moss.The loose or drifting form may, or may not, it seems, be a different form from the attached one.And the furcellaran extracted from the alga might - or might not - be different from carrageenan, which in turn might or might not be agar-agar.The setting agent E406 in foods is probably all of those, and some more.

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